Kenyan Opposition Politician Deported Again

A Kenyan opposition politician says authorities drugged and forcibly deported him to Dubai.

Miguna Miguna says in a Facebook post that he had been detained in a bathroom at Nairobi’s international airport since Monday, when he returned from Canada after being deported last month. Miguna says authorities broke into the bathroom Thursday and injected him with a substance, then dragged him to an Emirates Airline plane.

Lawyers for Miguna said their client was deported despite a court order mandating his release. A High Court judge on Wednesday declared the interior minister and national police chief in contempt of court for disregarding the order. He ordered the officials to appear in court Thursday to answer to the charge.

Miguna was deported to Canada last month after he administered the oath of office to opposition leader Raila Odinga at his mock presidential swearing-in ceremony in January to protest President Uhuru Kenyatta’s re-election. He was stripped of his Kenyan passport before he was forced to leave the country, but also holds Canadian citizenship and is traveling on a Canadian passport.

The Supreme Court ruled that election invalid on procedural grounds, but Odinga boycotted a rerun in October, saying the electoral commission could not conduct a fair election. Kenyatta won that second election with 98 percent of the votes.

Odinga and Kenyatta have held talks in recent weeks in an effort to ease tensions that arose from the October poll.